A federal grand jury in Washington declined to indict former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, Reuters reported, after the Trump administration's Justice Department investigated whether she gave false testimony to the House January 6 panel.
A federal grand jury in Washington declined to indict former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, Reuters reported on October 27, citing a source familiar with the matter. The Justice Department under President Donald Trump had been investigating Hutchinson over whether she gave false testimony to the congressional panel that probed the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol by supporters of Trump. Hutchinson has maintained that her testimony was truthful.
The court record itself does not name her. A federal prosecutor told US Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui during a court hearing that a grand jury in Washington had rejected an indictment, without revealing the proposed defendant or the charges. People familiar with the case later confirmed to reporters that the rejected presentation concerned Hutchinson. A second source told Reuters the grand jury weighing evidence in the case had been meeting on Tuesday.
Hutchinson was an aide to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and gave high-profile televised testimony to the House January 6 committee on June 28, 2022. Trump pardoned nearly everyone criminally charged with participating in the Capitol attack on his first day back in office in January 2025, and former special counsel Jack Smith's 2023 case accusing Trump of plotting to overturn his 2020 election defeat was dropped after Trump won the 2024 election.
Reuters and Associated Press accounts agree on the outcome, which strengthens the reporting, but the identification of Hutchinson rests on sources familiar with the matter rather than on a court naming her. That distinction matters: the hearing established that an indictment was rejected, while the link to Hutchinson comes from the sources, not from the prosecutor's statement in court. No account in the reporting says what charges were proposed, and none says the Justice Department has announced a further presentation.
The decision is a setback for an effort by the administration to pursue a prominent critic, and Reuters noted that political experts have raised concerns about efforts to target the president's critics and political opponents. The next development to watch is whether the Justice Department seeks another grand jury presentation or drops the matter, neither of which has been announced in the reporting so far.